Yuko Hayashibara

Name: Yuko Hayashibara

Gender: Female

Age: 17

Grade: 12th

School: George Hunter High School

Hobbies and Interests: Animals, sports (softball and soccer), activism, anti-bullying

Appearance: Yuko is taller than her sisters, standing at 5'11" and weighing 150 lbs. Years of exercise have given her a slender build, her body covered in toned muscles and lacking visible fat or curves. She is Japanese in ethnicity, and due to time frequently spent outside she has tanned brown skin. Her face is circular, has dark brown almond-shaped eyes, thin eyebrows, a small, round nose, and thin lips. She keeps her black hair short. It’s naturally spiky, and if left to her own devices Yuko will not put much care into her hair, causing it to appear unkempt. However, her sister Yuka frequently steps in to style her hair, and on the day of the abduction it was styled into a pixie cut. Yuko does not use makeup except on formal occasions, finding it to be pointless and too much of a hassle to put on.

Her attire mainly consists of light clothes, which she opts to wear because she finds them easier to exercise in. During warmer months, Yuko typically wears t-shirts, tank tops, and shorts. During cooler months, Yuko tends to wear light jackets and baggy pants, as a way for her to maintain warmth without weighing herself down too much. She almost always wears running shoes, finding them better for physical activity and finding more formal types of footwear to be uncomfortable and impractical. She occasionally likes to wear earrings with shapes she finds cute, encouraged by her sisters who say they look good on her. On the day of the abduction, Yuko wore a black tank top, white spandex shorts, and black Nike running shoes with white laces.

Biography: Yuko Hayashibara was born as the first of a set of fraternal triplets on June 3rd, 2000 to parents Kengo Hayashibara and Emi Hayashibara, nee Yagami. The two were Japanese immigrants, meeting and falling in love at the University of Tokyo; they married two years after graduating. They were employed as business managers at Toyota’s Tokyo building before they were transferred to Chattanooga, Tennessee to help manage the town's Capital Toyota. Yuko is the oldest sister, born thirty minutes before Yuki and an hour before Yuka. Yuko has always had a close relationship with her sisters, being very supportive and protective of them. In addition to this, she is very grateful towards her parents, because they have allowed her to pursue her passion for sports.

Growing up, Yuko was an energetic child. She loved to run around and play with the other kids. Yuko especially showed an interest in physical playground games — examples being basketball, jump rope, and four square — because they allowed her to exert herself and expend her latent energy. In addition, Yuko's early childhood fostered two aspects of her that still remain to this day, her arachnophobia and her love for animals. When she was four years old, Yuko once woke up in the middle of the night to find that a spider had crawled onto her face. Although her screams caused her parents to rush into the room and quickly remove the spider, she was unable to sleep for the rest of the night, and she began to have nightmares about the event afterwards. This has created a fear of spiders that has lasted to this day. The fear is minor – she only experiences a brief jolt of fear when seeing a spider – but it’s embarrassing to her, as it goes against the tough image she tries to project. In the past she’s been ridiculed by friends for her arachnophobia, and she tries to keep it a secret.

Another trait that stemmed from her childhood was a love of animals. She would pass a pet shop every day on her way to elementary school, and she would often stop to marvel at the animals. This gave way to a love of animals. She was never allowed to buy her own pet due to her parents having strict policies on spending money, but she still has a fondness for animals that are commonly kept as pets, such as cats and hamsters, and more uncommon pets, such as bats and bearded dragons. She likes them because she finds them cute, and seeing an animal can change her whole demeanor, making her act softer and more cheerful. She does sometimes run into taratulas on display in pet stores, but she can manage to suppress her fear as long as they're caged and she can ignore them.

When Yuko first entered middle school, her life was much the same as it was in elementary school, focusing mainly on playing games with school itself taking a back burner. Soon however, puberty hit, and she began noticing the physical traits of the opposite gender, developing strong romantic feelings towards some of her male friends. These feelings were mostly uncontrollable, and she would often end up having crushes on multiple different boys at a time. The embarrassment and awkwardness that resulted lead her to have issues in talking with the other sex. As a result, her social circle in middle school was mostly girls, with her trying to ignore other guys unless she was playing sports with them or otherwise had to interact with them. After a few years of middle school, Yuko managed to get her feelings under control to the point where they didn’t hinder her. Although she still frequently has crushes on other guys in her cohort, she can easily put these feelings aside and interact with them without feeling shy or self-conscious.

Yuko's interests in playground games, as she transitioned into middle school, evolved into an interest in more organized sports. She grew to love softball after playing the sport during a PE class back in elementary school; when entered middle school, she joined the softball team, her father helping her practice as he used to be a pitcher for his high school baseball team. In addition, she became interested in soccer after playing it in her free time, joining the team for that as well. She likes both sports because she finds the physical part of it exhilarating and because it allows for her to spend more time with her friends, who are mainly sporty people. In addition, she likes to go jogging on an almost-daily basis for many reasons: it allows her to clear her mind and think about things related to her life, it allows her to train for softball, and it allows her to interact with some of the people she jogs with, including jogging partners she knows from school.

During middle school, Yuka came out as bisexual to the rest of the family. Because of this Yuko's view on LGBT rights adjusted: at first, she had not really cared about the matter, but after her sister’s coming out she came to see LGBT rights as an important issue, occasionally joining activist events in the local area. She also cares about racial and ethnic diversity, being Japanese herself and having many friends with differing ethnicities. Finally, she wishes to fight for gender rights, advocating for the merging of the different gender sports teams and often proclaiming that even as a woman she can still do anything a man could do. Yuko's parents, also being very supportive of Yuka and happy that Yuko was passionate about improving the world, were supportive of Yuko's activism

As she moved on into high school, Yuko’s personality remained much the same. The abundance of energy she had meant that she was loud and energetic when talking to other people, and her accomplishments in the softball and soccer teams led her to adopt a prideful attitude when it came to her athleticism. She uses her physical abilities to try and project the image of a tough girl, always standing up for herself and others and trying to never show weakness. She’s insecure about her traits that go against this image, such as her fondness for cute animals, her fear of spiders, and her tendency to crush easily. She tries not to reveal these aspects of herself to anyone aside from her family and her close friends.

In addition, after seeing incidents of bullying happening in the hallways, and seeing many people watching the events without doing anything about it, she decided that she needed to stand up for the bullied students, and elected to join the anti-bullying committee. Due to her interests in activism and her image of being the tough girl among the set of triplets, she will not stand for bullying in any form, and will likely confront anyone who she sees bullying or discriminating against others in the hallways, getting in close and using her physicality to intimidate them into backing down. In recent months, her relationship with the anti-bullying committee has become strained, after notorious bully Wyatt Carter jokingly ran for president of the committee and won. Yuko has come to believe the other members don't take anti-bullying seriously enough, so she's gone to meetings less and spent more time trying to stop bullying by herself.

Academically, Yuko is an average student, her grades ranging around the B to C area with the occasional A. Her weakest subject is math, which she finds way too complex for her to understand, and she often needs her sister Yuki to tutor her on the subject. Her strong suit is physical education, with her physically active nature easily allowing her to excel. Throughout high school, she's excelled at soccer and softball, even becoming the captain of both teams in her senior year. While her prideful personality originally annoyed many of her teammates, she has backed up her boasting with her athletic ability and her dedication to managing the teams, so most of her teammates have come to respect her.

Socially, she's decently popular. She tends to gel well with the fellow athletic kids, so long as they don't bully others, and she also has an outgoing personality that leads her to converse with people outside of that social sphere. Her prideful personality and aggressive activism have rubbed some people the wrong way, however. She has a tendency to interfere with other peoples' business when she thinks there's some injustice happening that she has to stop, and that has made her a few enemies. Romantically, Yuko has gotten over her awkwardness with the other sex and has gone on a couple of dates with others in her year. None of her relationships have been particularly long term, but she has remained on good terms with all the people she has been with.

Yuko has a good relationship with her family. She has always been close with her sisters; as the technical oldest, she is protective of them, and she frequently helps them with their problems and provides a shoulder to cry on. She's less willing to rely on them, but in rare cases, such as with the math tutoring, she has accepted their help. She gets along well with her parents; they encourage her athletic pursuits and activism, encouraging her to work hard to follow her passions.

Yuko has only a vague idea of what she wants to do with her future. She wants to work with animals, and for the past few years she’s had a part-time job at the local shelter. She’s planning to go to college and eventually enter a career involving animals, such as becoming a veterinarian or working to preserve endangered species. She also intends to keep playing softball and soccer in college.

Advantages: Due to years of sport training, Yuko is physically adept. She can run fast, and her physicality can make her good in a fight. She’s outgoing, and has a lot of friends among the other athletic students. When she is passionate about accomplishing a goal, she puts a great deal of effort into it.

Disadvantages: Yuko has a very prideful personality, and cares very much about maintain her tough image; her personality has made her some enemies. In addition, it can be a practical hindrance; she might refuse to back down from a fight, even when it would be better to retreat. Her hatred of injustice and bullying can lead her to act to protect others even at risk to herself.

Designated Number: Female student No. 058

---

Designated Weapon: Nock gun

Conclusion: Athletic? Tough, prideful, aggressive? Holy shit I was right, you ARE Buttercup! Ahem, given your role as the muscle of the Powerpuff Girls (which is totally what we're calling you all now), I see no reason why you can't team up and make it far. Provided you can all get together, that is... if evil finds you when you're alone, your formulaic episode will grind to an abrupt, and deadly, end. - Dennis Lourvey

'The above biography is as written by Polybius. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Polybius

Kills: None

Killed By:  Katrina Lavell

Collected Weapons: Nock gun (assigned weapon, to Demetri Futscher)

Allies: Demetri Futscher, Charelle Chernyshyova, Katrina Lavell, Felix Rees

Enemies: 

Mid-game Evaluation: Yuko was quick to action, hunting for her sisters, but she was led astray, running up to the lighthouse because of screaming. She had some difficulty placating the sword-wielding girl, not assisted by other arrivals: Zachary Beck, Demetri Futscher, and Sven Vee, the latter-most of whom came from within the lighthouse and quickly vanished back into it by slamming the door. When everyone was more or less calm Yuko tried to get them to go along with her plans, optimistically speaking of eventual rescue if they could hold out safely for long enough. Zach was unimpressed and declined to join, instead successfully petitioning Sven for lighthouse asylum. That left Yuko with Katrina, and Demetri by default. Yuko, with Katrina's vote of confidence, defined their initial plan as a group- they'd scout the villages, and look out for possible allies including the other Hayashibaras.

Yuko immediately yelled out their position when they found the western housing units- someone responded in kind. Yuko led them to the door in question, and they were greeted by Charelle and her ally Felix Rees. Charelle and Felix had no explicit leads, but they were at least amicable to Yuko's idea of searching for allies. They'd need to camp out for a while, however, and they claimed the house for the evening. Sundown had already come on the first day when an incident began to brew- Yuko didn't immediately observe it, having stayed in the home's other room with Charelle, but she walked into the main living room to see a bloodied Tyrell Lahti brandishing his weapon, and Katrina brandishing her own sword. Yuko tried to plead for a stand down, and for Ty to leave them be. The situation however, only escalated firmly out of control- Felix and Katrina both made wrong moves in brandishing their weapons, causing Ty to fight back in earnest. Yuko was quickly taken out of commission by a fist to the face, she sputtered on the floor, tried to reassert control. It was too late, however. She recovered only in time to see Tyrell gun down Felix, and with no further bravado Yuko made to run. She didn't run out of the house in her confusion, but into the other room, where a paranoid Katrina had also hidden. Katrina attacked on sight, not realizing it wasn't Ty until it was too late, and Yuko was sporting a shiny new deep cut to her abdomen.

Deprived of all the fight left in her Yuko finally allowed herself to cry, and to regret. Demetri and Charelle were her only allies left, and she seized on it, weakly instructing Demetri to continue her plan with her dying breaths, to save her sisters.

Post-Game Evaluation: Buttercup! She is the toughest fighter-! only, this girl wasn't even close to tough and the Powerpuff Girls aren't saving the day. - Dennis Lourvey

Memorable Quotes: "This is the only way we're gonna find anyone here. It'll be alright, okay? I won't let anythin' bad happen." - Reassuring Katrina, after confidently shouting out their position to possibly unknown enemies.

Threads
Below is a list of threads containing Yuko, in chronological order.

The Past: V7 Pregame: V7:
 * Hayashibara Heart to Heart
 * It's Raining Somewhere Else
 * Just keep breathin' and breathin' and breathin'
 * LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BOYZ WHERE WE DROPPIN’

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Yuko Hayashibara. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * The Hayashibaras got my attention right away as a group concept, in part due to the pedigree of triplets in SOTF, and I was pretty curious to see how a more modern take on the concept would play out a few versions down the line. While I liked the conceptual setup, generally speaking, I think there was a little bit of uncertainty in Pregame where some of the sisters got shuffled around between handlers, which ultimately led to Yuko having pretty limited screen time, alongside her sisters or otherwise. It's a bit of a shame for a character whose family dynamic plays such a big role in her concept, and while a lot is done in the later stages of the game to fill in the details, particularly in Yuka's narrative, if you're just reading Yuko herself you may not get that because it's largely in others' reactions to her death.

That said, a thing I actually really do appreciate about Yuko is how she functions with regards to her sisters, specifically when it comes to not resolving things neatly. As an overall version, V7 is fairly prone to wrapping up plot threads cleanly in most cases. Reunions are the order of the day, hanging elements get resolved, etc. In some ways it's nice, but in others it can feel convenient to the point of straining verisimilitude. And this, then, is what's cool about Yuko: despite being part of a big concept, she dies fairly offhandedly right at the start, not even killed on purpose, and this ignoble exit ultimately serves as an incredible inciting shock for her sisters, shaking them up and galvanizing them to seek each other more desperately (particularly given Yuko's role as the physical one of the three, the defender almost). In this way, Yuko's early death actually does a whole lot for her surviving family members.

When it comes to Yuko herself, she's always around massive groups but pulls out some nice little character spotlight moments, especially as one of the only people who kind of sort of holds vague fondness towards Demetri Futscher. Their improbable connection has some charming beats, as when Demetri trips over himself confusing her with her decidedly non-identical sisters (but really the blame lies with their parents for the theme names). And while Yuko's death is the result of truly staggering negligence on the part of her killer, this is turn creates a tangled, ambiguous grudge that pays off way down the line.

So I guess what I'm saying is that Yuko has a nice little story, but where she truly shines and comes into her own, especially with regards to her sisters, is posthumously. I'd encourage anyone who enjoys Yuko to go ahead and read her sisters too, to get the full picture and see just how big an impact she makes by virtue of her absence. - MurderWeasel